Weather challenges lead to smaller, drier soybean crop

Sunday

Oct 1, 2017 at 9:01 AM

Soybeans are measured on a number scale that measures the amount of 60-pound bushels produced on an acre plot. Last year, the crop was around 52, meaning there was 52 60-pound bushels of soybeans per acre of land.

Austin. Metz @hollandsentinel.com, (616) 546-4290

Recent weather patterns have had an impact on every crop this year.

Whether it is the recent heat and drought or the hard frost West Michigan experienced in early May, no crop has been completely immune.

Soybeans, one of the top sold commodities in the state, were no different.

“Beans are really dry, probably drier than normal as far as the actual moisture of the soybeans themselves,” said Ben Glass, Seed Sales Manager at Zeeland Farm Services.

“That means that there is an increased chance of splits. It is more of a situation where the beans are there, but they are drier at harvest time than we have seen the last couple years.”

There are two concerns with the soybeans because of the recent weather. The first is the soybeans will be smaller than past years, and the second is the unevenness and dryness of the beans.

“This crop is not as even as in years past,” Glass said. “There are still some beans that are out there that are a little green.

"The moisture is good enough to harvest, but there are some beans that need to have some drying in the bin to bring them to the condition where they can be brought to an elevator.”

Despite the weather, Glass said it should still be a solid year, just not as strong as the past year or two.

Soybeans are measured on a number scale that measures the amount of 60-pound bushels produced on a one-acre plot of land. Last year, the crop was around 52, which means there was 52 60-pound bushels of soybeans per acre of land.

This year, Glass expects the yield to be between 40 and 50, which he considers more realistic than the past couple years.

“I think the quality of the beans will be there,” he said. “I think that overall, what we have is a good crop. It is just not necessarily what we have seen the last couple of years where we have had some really good yields. I think the take home is that we are all coming off of kind of a high of good yields and I think this year is just not that.”

Most farmers in the area are in the process of bringing in the soybean crop.

“It helped that we warmed up,” Glass said. “That cooler weather was delaying things so with the hotter weather, the beans dry fast and now we can get on harvest.”